Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1887-05-14

/ cepta9les of everything that ;el au-
tborzhas a mind to write9 Shall
tberel5eano distinction between the
tree oitife and the tree of deathi
Shall Mssstoopdown and drink out
of theSfrongh which the wickedness
of menshas filled with pollution and
shamesShall wc mirc i'll impurity,
and chase fantastic will.o '.tbe.wiSps
acrosssshe swamps, when we might
walk insthe blooming gilrdens OF
God? 40, mol For the sake of our
presenfsand everlasting welfare we
must make an intelligent and
Christian choice. Standing, as we
do, chiMdeppin fictitious literature,
the firsssquestion that many OF the
youp 9 speople. are asking Inc Isl
aShall sges read novelist | reply:
There are dSe novelsthat are pure,good,
Christian, elevating to the hearI
and eSlnoblingN to the life. But |
have stnISfurther TO say that be-
lieye tllaS ninety,nine out OF the
hundreu novels in this day are
banefuIsand destructive to the last
degree pure work Of fiction IS
hislory@and poetry combined. 1t
is a history Of things around MS,
With ths.licenses and the assumed
names ofpoetry. The world can
never pay the debt which it owes
to suchSfctitious writer's as Haw-
thorne.and Mckenzie, and Land,n,
and Hunt, and Arthur, and Marion
Harland,and others whose names
are familiar to all. The folies OF
high lif@ were never better ex-
posed tkan by Miss Edgeworth.-
The memories OF the past were
never more faithfully embalmed
than in the writings OF Walter
Scott. Cooper's novels are health
fully .redolent with the breath OF
The seaweed, and the air OF the
American forest. Charles Kings
ley has smltten the morbidity OF
the world and led Il great MANY to
appreciate the poetry of sound
health, Strong muscles, and fresh
air. Thackeray did "a grand work
in caricaturing the pretenders TO
gentilitXand high blood. Dickens
has built his OWL monument in his
books, which are I'LL everlasting
plea for the poor, and the anathema
Of injustice.
Now, Isay, books like these, read
at rigllt;EtimeS, and read III right
proportion with other books, CAN
not helpfbut be enrolling and pu-
ryfying;5but alas for the loathsome
and mpareliterature that has como
upon this country in the shape OF
novels. like. a freshet overdowlng
all the banks OF decenQE and COM
mon sense! They arc coming from
lslH vile bF FatSR RsR
ia GIasgiSn Of some of our religious
newspapers. They lie on your cen
table, to.curse your children,and
blast with their internal fires gen-
efatlons unborn. You find these
books in the desk of the school
miss, in the trunk OF the young man,
in tile steamboat cabin, on the Ia
ble of the hotel reception ROOM
You see lightin your chlld's room
late at night. You suddenly go in
and say: "What are you reading"
II am reading.n "What are you
reading4" IA book" You look
at the book; it is a bad book
"Whcre did you get it2" 81 Dor
rowed it," Alas, there are always
those abroad who would like to
loan your son or daughter bad
book! Everywhere, everywhere an
uncleau literature. | charge upon
it the destruction of ten thousand
immortal souls, and l bid you this
morning wake up to the magnitude
of the Iheme. I shall take all the
world literature-good novels and
: bad, favels true and false, histo
ries I'd thful and incorrect, legends
beautiful and monstrous, all tracts,
all chrAnicles, all epilogues, all fam
lily, city State and national libra
, ries-4d pile Them up in a pyra
mid OF literature, and then | Shall
, bring t bear upon it some grand,
: glorious infallible, unmistakable
I Christih principles. God help me
+ to spea with reference to my last
i accountant God help you to lis
3 ten.
i l chage you In the first place, to
, stand ioof from all books that
: give fall pictures of human life
g Life is D ther a tragedy nor a farce.
? Men araot all either knaves or
It heroes. Women are neither angels
d nor furil And yet if you depend
i. upon nth Of the literature of the
g day, you would get the idea that
life, insad of being something
g earnest, yomething practical, is q
r titful anfantastic and extravaganza
n thing.
t. How borly prepared are that
Il young nh and woman for the. du-
Is ties Of tday who spent last night
9. wading rough brilliant passages
4, descripte of magnificent knavery
S, and wicdness! The mani will be
e. looking lday long for his heroine,
IL in the tishop, by the forge, in the
s, factory, the counting room, and
I'd lie will tfind her, aud he will be
A. dissatish. a man who gives him
self up the indiscriminate read.
,g ing of nels will be nerveless, in
by sane ana nuisance. He VIII De